The Albion City Council unanimously approved a contract with the Michigan Municipal League to help them search for a city manager and voted 4-3 to have Tom Mead, deputy treasurer, serve as interim city manager.

Council members Cheryl Krause, Andrew French and Andrew Zblewski voted against Mead, after Herman suggested Kevin Markovich, Albion’s director of public services, be appointed to the interim post. Council members Maurice Barnes, Garrett Brown, Lenn Reid and Mayor Joe Domingo voted to have Mead serve as interim city manager beginning Jan. 20.

Herman said the city will pay the Michigan Municipal League about $10,000 to help conduct the search.

“The contract with the MML is costing the city $8,500 and then another $1,500 for possible expenses,” Herman said. “When it’s all said and done, it could be more and it could be less.”

Caroline Kennedy, the league’s manager of field operations, will head the city manager search.

“Caroline and the city council will develop a profile of what they are looking for, generate advertisements and get applicants that the council can then vet,” Herman said. “They’ll really get things going in the next couple of weeks.”

The council also voted to have Albion city employees pay more for health care by approving union contracts that call for employees to pay 10 percent of their health insurance premiums. The two-year contracts will save the city $40,000 in 2012.

Herman said after the two-year contracts are up, the city will most likely look to a plan that has city employees pay 20 percent of their premiums.

The plan required the Albion City Council to opt out of Senate Bill 7, a bill put forward in January that requires Michigan municipalities to move to an 80/20 health insurance plan with city employees. Governing bodies can opt out of the bill with a two-thirds vote, something the Albion City Council did two months ago when balancing the 2012 budget.

The new contracts also call for a two-year wage freeze for city employees.